Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device

ABSTRACT

TFT structures optimal for driving conditions of a pixel portion and driving circuits are obtained using a small number of photo masks. First through third semiconductor films are formed on a first insulating film. First shape first, second, and third electrodes are formed on the first through third semiconductor films. The first shape first, second, third electrodes are used as masks in first doping treatment to form first concentration impurity regions of one conductivity type in the first through third semiconductor films. Second shape first, second, and third electrodes are formed from the first shape first, second, and third electrodes. A second concentration impurity region of the one conductivity type which overlaps the second shape second electrode is formed in the second semiconductor film in second doping treatment. Also formed in the second doping treatment are third concentration impurity regions of the one conductivity type which are placed in the first and second semiconductor films. Fourth and Fifth concentration impurity regions having the other conductivity type that is opposite to the one conductivity type are formed in the third semiconductor film in third doping treatment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device with a thin filmtransistor (hereinafter referred to as TFT) formed of a semiconductorfilm that has a crystal structure and is formed on a substrate, and to amethod of manufacturing the semiconductor device.

2. Description of the Related Arts

A display for displaying text and images is indispensable means forpeople to digest information with various semiconductor devices thathave semiconductor elements, such as television sets, personalcomputers, and cellular phones. CRTs have long been in the market toacquire the position of representative display. On the other hand,liquid crystal displays and other flat displays (flat panel displays)are lately increasing their shares exponentially, for electronic devicesare desired to reduce weight and size.

One mode of flat panel displays is active matrix driving in which a TFTis provided in each pixel or dot and data signals are sequentiallywritten to display an image. A TFT is an indispensable element in activematrix driving.

Most TFTs are formed from amorphous silicon. Those TFTs cannot operateat high speed and therefore they are used only as switching elementsprovided in respective dots. Since the TFTs cannot make other elementsthan switching elements, external ICs (driver ICs) mounted by TAB (tapeautomated bonding) or COG (chip on glass) are used in data line sidedriving circuits for outputting video signals to data lines and inscanning line side driving circuits for outputting scanning signals toscanning lines.

However, mounting a driver IC is considered as a limited method becausethe pixel pitch is reduced as the pixel density is increased. Forinstance, at a pixel density of UXGA level (1200×1600 pixels) in the RGBcolor method, at least 6000 connection terminals are necessary even by acrude estimation. An increase in number of connection terminals leads toincreased occurrence of contact failure. It also leads to an increase inarea of the border surrounding the pixel portion (called a picture frameregion), which hinders reduction in size of a semiconductor device thatemploys this display and spoils the external design of the semiconductordevice. Against this background, apparently a display device in whichdriving circuits are integrated with a pixel portion is needed. Byintegrally forming a pixel portion and a scanning line side and dataline side driving circuits on the same substrate, the number ofconnection terminals can be markedly reduced as well as the area of thepicture frame region.

The integrated driving circuits are demanded to have high drivingperformance (ON current: I_(on)) and to improve their reliability bypreventing degradation due to the hot carrier effect whereas low OFFcurrent (I_(off)) is required for the pixel portion. A lightly dopeddrain (LDD) structure is known as a TFT structure capable of reducingthe OFF current value. In the LDD structure, an LDD region, which islightly doped with an impurity element, is placed between a channelformation region and a source region or drain region heavily doped withan impurity element. A structure that is known to be effective inpreventing degradation of ON current value due to hot carriers is an LDDstructure in which an LDD region partially overlaps a gate electrode(gate-drain overlapped LDD; hereinafter abbreviated as GOLD).

A TFT is manufactured by layering a semiconductor film and an insulatingfilm or conductive film while using photo masks to etch the films intogiven shapes. If optimization of TFT structures to suit what aredemanded for the pixel portion and the driving circuits is dealt with bysimply increasing the number of photo masks, the manufacture processbecomes complicated and the number of steps is increased inevitably.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made to solve those problems, and anobject of the present invention is therefore to provide a technique ofobtaining TFT structures optimal for driving conditions of a pixelportion and driving circuits using a small number of photo masks.

In order to attain the above object of the invention, the presentinvention adopts a gate electrode of two-layer structure in which afirst layer in contact with a gate insulating film is longer in channellength direction than a second layer. The two-layer structure gateelectrode is used in forming source and drain regions and an LDD regionin a self-aligning manner in an n-channel TFT of a driving circuitportion. Source and drain regions and an LDD region of an n-channel TFTin a pixel portion are formed not in a self-aligning manner but by usinga photo mask. The LDD region of the n-channel TFT in the driving circuitportion is positioned so as to overlap the gate electrode whereas theLDD region of the n-channel TFT in the pixel portion is placed outsideof the gate electrode (so as not to overlap the gate electrode). Thesource and drain regions and the two types of LDD regions, which havedifferent positional relation with respect to the gate electrodes, areformed through two doping treatment steps.

As described above, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device inaccordance with the present invention is characterized by comprising thesteps of:

forming on a first insulating film first through third semiconductorfilms that are separated from one another;

forming a first electrode, a second electrode, and a third electroderespectively on the first semiconductor film, the second semiconductorfilm, and the third semiconductor film with a second insulating filminterposed between the electrodes and the films, the electrodes having afirst shape;

using as masks the first shape first through third electrodes in firstdoping treatment to form first concentration impurity regions of oneconductivity type in the first through third semiconductor films;

forming second shape first through third electrodes from the first shapefirst through third electrodes;

forming through second doping treatment a second concentration impurityregion of the one conductivity type in the second semiconductor film,and third concentration impurity regions of the one conductivity type inthe first semiconductor film and the second semiconductor film, thesecond concentration impurity region overlapping the second shape secondelectrode; and

forming through third doping treatment a fourth concentration impurityregion and a fifth concentration impurity region in the thirdsemiconductor film, the regions having the other conductivity type thatis opposite to the one conductivity type. In other words; thesemiconductor device manufacturing method of the present invention ischaracterized in that etching treatment for forming a gate electrode ofa TFT is combined with doping treatment to form LDD regions and a sourceor drain region in a self-aligning manner.

Further, according to another structure of the present invention, themethod is characterized by comprising the steps of: forming on a firstinsulating film a first semiconductor film, a second semiconductor film,and a third semiconductor film that are separated from one another,forming a first shape first electrode above the first semiconductor filmwith a second insulating film interposed therebetween; using the firstshape first electrode as a mask to form a first concentration impurityregion of one conductivity type in the first semiconductor film; forminga first shape second electrode and third electrode above the secondsemiconductor film and the third semiconductor film with the secondinsulating film interposed between the semiconductor films andelectrodes; etching the first shape second electrode and third electrodeto form a second shape second electrode and third electrode; formingthrough second doping treatment a second concentration impurity regionof the one conductivity type in the second semiconductor film, and thirdconcentration impurity regions of the one conductivity type in the firstsemiconductor film and the second semiconductor film, the secondconcentration impurity region overlapping the second shape secondelectrode; and forming through third doping treatment a fourthconcentration impurity region and a fifth concentration impurity regionin the third semiconductor film, the regions having the otherconductivity type that is opposite to the one conductivity type.

With the manufacture method as this, LDD that overlaps a gate electrodeis formed in a self-aligning manner in an n-channel TFT of a drivingcircuit. This LDD is obtained at the same time a source or drain regionis formed through the same doping step by utilizing the film thicknessdifference (level difference) of the gate electrode. On the other hand,a mask is used to form LDD that does not overlap a gate electrode in ann-channel TFT of a pixel portion.

The term semiconductor device in the present invention refers to devicesin general that utilize semiconductor characteristics to function, anddisplay devices, representatively, liquid crystal display devices havingTFTs, and semiconductor integrated circuits (micro processors, signalprocessing circuits, high frequency circuits, and the like) are includedtherein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGS. 1A and 1B are sectional views illustrating a process ofmanufacturing a TFT according to the present invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are sectional views illustrating a process ofmanufacturing a TFT according to the present invention;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are sectional views illustrating a process ofmanufacturing a TFT according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view illustrating a process of manufacturing a TFTaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a top view illustrating the structure of a pixel portion of anactive matrix substrate for a reflective display device;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the circuit structure of an activematrix substrate;

FIGS. 7A and 7B are sectional views illustrating a process ofmanufacturing a TFT according to the present invention;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are sectional views illustrating a process ofmanufacturing a TFT according to the present invention;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are sectional views illustrating a process ofmanufacturing a TFT according to the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view illustrating a process of manufacturing aTFT according to the present invention;

FIGS. 11A and 11B are sectional views illustrating a method ofmanufacturing a transmissive display device;

FIG. 12 is a sectional view showing she structure of a transmissiveliquid crystal display device;

FIG. 13 is a sectional view illustrating the structure of a pixelportion in a light emitting device;

FIG. 14 is a sectional view showing the structure of a light emittingdevice;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view illustrating the structure of an activematrix substrate;

FIGS. 16A to 16E are diagrams illustrating a process of manufacturing asemiconductor film that has a crystal structure;

FIGS. 17A to 17C are diagrams illustrating a process of manufacturing asemiconductor film that has a crystal structure;

FIG. 18 is a sectional view illustrating the structure of an activematrix substrate of the present invention;

FIGS. 19A and 19B are diagrams showing structures of NMOS circuits;

FIGS. 20A and 20B are diagrams showing the structure of a shiftregister;

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing the structure of a gate line drivingcircuit that is composed of an n-channel TFT;

FIG. 22 is a timing chart of a decoder input signal;

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing the structure of a data line drivingcircuit that is composed of an n-channel TFT;

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing the structure of a gate line drivingcircuit that is composed of a p-channel TFT;

FIG. 25 is a timing chart of a decoder input signal;

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing the structure of a data line drivingcircuit that is composed of a p-channel TFT;

FIGS. 27A to 27F are diagrams showing examples of a semiconductordevice;

FIGS. 28A to 28C are diagrams showing examples of a semiconductordevice;

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating a process of manufacturing asemiconductor film that has a crystal structure;

FIG. 30 is a graph showing the profile of phosphorus doping through agate insulating film and a tantalum nitride film; and

FIG. 31 is a graph obtained by fitting through conversion of thetantalum nitride film thickness into the gate insulating film thicknessin which the former is multiplied by a constant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF TUE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment Mode 1

An embodiment mode of the present invention will be described withreference to FIGS. 1A to 6. Here, a detailed description is given on amethod of simultaneously forming on the same substrate a TFT for a pixelportion and TFTs (an n-channel TFT and a p-channel TFT) for drivingcircuits that are placed near the pixel portion.

In FIG. 1A, a substrate 101 is a glass substrate, a quartz substrate, ora ceramic substrate. A silicon substrate, metal substrate or stainlesssteel substrate, with an insulating film formed on its surface may beused instead. A plastic substrate may also be used if it has a heatresistance that can withstand the process temperature of this embodimentmode.

First insulating films 102 and 103 are formed on the substrate 101. Thefirst insulating films shown here have a two-layer structure but theymay of course have a single layer structure. Semiconductor films 104 to107 are semiconductors having a crystal structure. The semiconductorfilms are obtained by crystallizing amorphous semiconductor films thatare formed on the first insulating films. After deposition, theamorphous semiconductor films are crystallized by heat treatment orlaser light irradiation. The material of the amorphous semiconductorfilms is not limited but silicon or a silicon germanium (Si_(x)Ge_(1-x);0<x<1, typically x=0.001 to 0.05) alloy is preferably used.

When the amorphous semiconductor films are crystallized by laser lightirradiation, a pulse oscillation type or continuous-wave gas laser orsolid laser is employed. Examples of gas lasers used include a KrFexcimer laser, an ArF excimer laser, and a XeCl excimer laser. In alaser emitter employed, crystals of YAG, YVO₄, YLF, YAlO₃ or the likeare doped with Cr, Nd, Er, Ho, Ce, Co, Ti, or Tm. Although varyingbetween materials used for doping, the fundamental wave of laser lightemitted from the laser emitter has a wavelength of 1 μm to 2 μm. Inorder to crystallize the amorphous semiconductor films, laser light hasto be selectively absorbed by the semiconductor films. Therefore, it ispreferable to choose laser light having a wavelength between visible rayand ultraviolet ray and to use second harmonic to fourth harmonic of thefundamental wave. Typically, the amorphous semiconductor films arecrystallized using second harmonic (532 nm) by a Nd:YVO₄ laser emitter(fundamental wave: 1064 nm). Other than that, gas laser emitter such asan argon laser emitter and a krypton laser emitter can be used.

Before crystallization, the amorphous semiconductor films may be dopedwith nickel or other metal elements that have a catalytic effect oncrystallization of semiconductors. For instance, a solution containingnickel is held to the surface of an amorphous silicon film, and the filmis dehydrated (at 500° C. for an hour) and subsequently subjected tothermal crystallization (at 550° C. for four hours). Then, the film isirradiated with second harmonic of continuous-wave laser light selectedfrom a YAG laser, a YVO₄ laser, and a YLF laser to improve thecrystallinity.

Next, a second insulating film 108 is formed to cover the semiconductorfilms 104 to 107. The second insulating film 108 is an insulating filmcontaining silicon and formed by plasma CVD or sputtering. The thicknessthereof is set to 40 to 150 nm. The second insulating film formed tocover the semiconductor films 104 to 107 is used as a gate insulatingfilm of the TFTs manufactured in this embodiment mode.

A conductive film for forming a gate electrode and a wiring line isformed on the second insulating film 108. A gate electrode in thepresent invention is formed from a laminate of two or more layers ofconductive films. A first conductive film 109 is formed on the secondinsulating film 108 from a nitride of a high melting point metal such asmolybdenum or tungsten. A second conductive film 110 is formed on thefirst conductive film from a high melting point metal, or from a lowresistive metal such as aluminum and copper, or from polysilicon.Specifically, a nitride of one or more kinds of elements selected fromthe group consisting of W, Mo, Ta, and Ti is used for the firstconductive film whereas the second conductive film uses an alloy of oneor more kinds of elements selected from the group consisting of W, Mo,Ta, Ti, Al, and Cu, or n type polycrystalline silicon.

As shown in FIG. 1B, resist masks 111 to 114 are formed next to performfirst etching treatment on the first conductive film and the secondconductive film. Formed through this etching treatment are first shapeelectrodes 116 to 118 that are tapered around the edges and first shapewiring lines 114 and 115. The electrodes are tapered at an angle of 45to 75°. Regions of the second insulating film 122 that are not coveredwith the first shape electrodes 116 to 118 and the first shape wiringlines 114 and 115 are etched and thinned by 20 to 50 nm.

First doping treatment employs ion implantation, or ion doping in whichions are injected without mass separation. In the doping, the firstshape electrodes 116 to 118 are used as masks to form firstconcentration impurity regions 123 to 126 of one conductivity type inthe semiconductor films 104 to 107. The first concentration is equal to1×10¹⁷ to 1×10¹⁹ atoms/cm³.

Without removing the resist masks 111 to 114, second etching treatmentis conducted as shown in FIG. 2A. In this etching treatment, the secondconductive film is subjected to anisotropic etching to form second shapeelectrodes 127 to 129 and second shape wiring lines 130 and 131. Regionsof the second insulating film that are not covered with the second shapeelectrodes 127 to 129 and the second shape wiring lines 130 and 131 areetched and thinned by 20 to 50 nm.

Thereafter, a mask 133 for covering the entirety of the semiconductorfilm 104, a mask 134 for covering the second shape electrode 129 that isplaced on the semiconductor film 106, and a mask 134 for covering thesemiconductor film 107 are formed to conduct second doping treatment.Through the second doping treatment, a second concentration impurityregion of the one conductivity type is formed in the semiconductor film105 and third concentration impurity regions of the one conductivitytype are formed in the semiconductor films 105 and 106.

A second concentration impurity region 135 of the one conductivity typeis formed in a self-aligning manner at a position overlapping a firstconductive film 128 a that constitutes the second shape electrode 128.The impurity given by ion doping transmits through the first conductivefilm 128 a before the semiconductor film is doped. Therefore, the numberof ions reaching the semiconductor film is reduced to make theconcentration in the region 135 lower than in the third concentration ntype impurity regions. The impurity concentration in the region 135 is1×10¹⁶ to 1×10¹⁷ atoms/cm³. Third concentration impurity regions 136 and137 are doped with an n type impurity in a concentration of 1×10²⁰ to1×10²¹ atoms/cm³.

Next, a resist mask 138 is formed as shown in FIG. 3A to conduct thirddoping treatment. Formed through the third doping treatment in thesemiconductor film 104 are a fourth concentration impurity region 139 ofthe other conductivity type (a conductivity type opposite to the oneconductivity type) and a fifth concentration impurity region 140 of theother conductivity type. The fourth concentration impurity region of theother conductivity type is formed in a region that overlaps the secondshape electrode 127, and is doped with the impurity element in aconcentration of 1×10¹⁸ to 1×10¹⁹ atoms/cm³. This impurity concentrationallows the region to function as LDD. The fifth concentration impurityregion 140 is doped with the impurity element in a concentration of2×10²⁰ to 3×10²¹ atoms/cm³.

Through the above steps, regions doped with impurities are formed in therespective semiconductor films for the purpose of controlling valenceelectrons. The second shape electrodes 127 to 129 serve as gateelectrodes. The second shape wiring line 130 serves as one of electrodesthat constitute a storage capacitor in the pixel portion. The secondshape wiring line 131 forms a data line in the pixel portion.

A third insulating 143 is formed next by plasma CVD or sputtering. Thethird insulating film 143 is a silicon oxynitride film, a silicon oxidefilm, or the like.

Thereafter, the impurity elements doped into the semiconductor films areactivated as shown in FIG. 3B. This activation step is carried out usinga furnace annealing or a rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The heattreatment is conducted in a nitrogen atmosphere at a temperature of 400to 700° C., typically, 450 to 500° C.

Instead, laser annealing using second harmonic (532 nm) of YAG laser maybe employed. The semiconductor films are irradiated with the secondharmonic (532 nm) of YAG laser to activate the impurity elements. Theactivation method is not limited to laser light irradiation and RTAusing a lamp light source may be employed to heat the semiconductorfilms by subjecting one or both sides of the substrate to lamp lightsource radiation.

As shown in FIG. 4, a fourth insulating film 144 made of silicon nitrideis then formed by plasma CVD to have a thickness of 50 to 100 nm. Heattreatment at 410° C. is conducted in a clean oven to hydrogenate thesemiconductor films with hydrogen released from the silicon nitridefilm.

A fifth insulating film 145 made of an organic insulating material isformed next on the fourth insulating film 144. An organic insulatingmaterial is used in order to level the outermost surface of the fifthinsulating film. Then, contact holes piercing through the third to fifthinsulating films are formed by etching treatment. In this etchingtreatment, regions of the third to fifth insulating films that areplaced in an external input terminal portion are removed. A titaniumfilm and an aluminum film are layered to form wiring lines 146 to 149, apixel electrode 151, a scanning line 152, a connection electrode 150,and a wiring line 153 that is connected to the external input terminal.

If the one conductivity type is n type and the other conductivity type(opposite to the one conductivity type) is p type, a driving circuit 205that has a p-channel TFT 200 and a first n-channel TFT 201 and a pixelportion 206 that has a second n-channel TFT 203 and a capacitor portion204 are formed on the same substrate through the above steps. Thecapacitor portion 204 is composed of the semiconductor film 107, a partof the second insulating film 122, and the first shape capacitancewiring line 130.

The p-channel TFT 200 of the driving circuit 205 has a channel formationregion 154, the fifth concentration p type impurity region 140 placedoutside of the second electrode 127 that serves as a gate electrode (theregion 140 functions as a source region or a drain region), and thefourth concentration p type impurity region (LDD) that overlaps thesecond electrode 127.

The first n-channel TFT 201 has a channel formation region 155, thesecond concentration n type impurity region 124 (LDD) overlapping thesecond shape electrode 128 that serves as a gate electrode, and thethird concentration n type impurity region 135 that functions as asource region or a drain region. The length of the LDD in the channellength direction is 0.5 to 2.5 μm, preferably 1.5 μm. This LDD structureis for preventing TFT degradation caused mainly by hot carrier effect.The n-channel TFT and the p-channel TFT can be used to form a shiftregister circuit, a buffer circuit, a level shifter circuit, a latchcircuit, etc. The structure of the first n-channel TFT 201 is suitableespecially for a buffer circuit that is high in driving voltage becausethe structure can prevent degradation by hot carrier effect.

The second n-channel TFT 203 of the pixel portion 206 has a channelformation region 156, the first concentration n type impurity region 125formed outside of the second shape electrode 129 that serves as a gateelectrode, and the third concentration n type impurity region 136 thatfunctions as a source region or a drain region. P type impurity regions141 and 142 are formed in the semiconductor film 107 that functions asone of electrodes of the capacitor portion 204.

The pixel portion 206 has the pixel electrode 151 and the connectionelectrode 150 that connects the data line 131 to the third concentrationn type impurity region 136 of the semiconductor film 106. The pixelportion also has the gate wiring line 152, which, though not shown inthe drawing, is connected to the second shape electrode 129 thatfunctions as a gate electrode.

As described above, the present invention makes it possible to form onthe same substrate a first n-channel TFT, which has a one conductivitytype impurity region with LDD that overlaps a gate electrode, and asecond n-channel TFT in which LDD does not overlap a gate electrode. Thetwo types of TFTs are separately arranged in circuits of differentoperation conditions, for example, one TFT in a driving circuit portionand the other TFT in a pixel portion. In the p-channel TFT, LDD overlapsa gate electrode.

The substrate formed in this embodiment mode, which has the drivingcircuit portion 205 and the pixel portion 206, is referred to as activematrix substrate for conveniences' sake. This active matrix substratecan be used to manufacture a display device of active matrix driving.The active matrix substrate in this embodiment mode has its pixelelectrode formed from a light reflective material, and therefore canmake a reflective liquid crystal display device. A liquid crystaldisplay device as well as a light emitting device in which an organiclight emitting device is used for a pixel portion can be manufacturedfrom the active matrix substrate.

Embodiment Mode 2

Another embodiment mode of the present invention will be described withreference to FIGS. 7A to 10. Here, a detailed description is given on amethod of simultaneously forming on the same substrate a TFT for a pixelportion and TFTs (an n-channel TFT and a p-channel TFT) for drivingcircuits that are placed in the periphery of the pixel portion.

The description on the substrate, the insulating films, thesemiconductor films, and the conductive films in Embodiment Mode 1applies to a substrate 301, first insulating films 302 and 303,semiconductor films 304 to 307, a second insulating film 308, a firstconductive film 309, and a second conductive film 310 in FIG. 7A.

Masks 311 and 312 are formed in FIG. 7B. The mask 311 covers the drivingcircuit portion whereas the mask 312 covers the pixel portion. With themasks covering the pixel and driving circuit portions, the firstconductive film and the second conductive film are etched in firstetching treatment to form a first shape electrode 313 and first shapewiring lines 314 and 315 (the electrode is composed of a firstconductive film 313 a and a second conductive film 313 b, the wiringline 314 of a first conductive film 314 a and a second conductive film314 b, the wiring line 315 of a first conductive film 315 a and a secondconductive film 315 b). Next, the semiconductor films 306 and 307 aredoped with an impurity element of one conductivity type in first dopingtreatment to form first concentration impurity regions 316 and 360 ofthe one conductivity type.

The masks 311 and 312 are removed and then a mask 317 that covers thefirst shape electrode 313 and the first shape wiring lines 314 and 315is formed as shown in FIG. 8A-Further, masks 318 to 320 are formed onthe driving circuit portion to form first shape electrodes 321 to 323 inthe driving circuit portion through second etching treatment.

The first etching treatment and the second etching treatment are bothfor etching the first conductive film and the second conductive film toform tapered portions around the edges at an angle of 45 to 75°.

The second etching treatment is followed by third etching treatment asshown in FIG. 8B. The third etching treatment is for selectively etchingthe second conductive film to form second shape electrodes 324 to 326.The second shape electrodes have projections of first conductive films324 a to 326 a.

The second shape electrodes 324 and 325 are used as masks in seconddoping treatment, utilizing the film thickness difference between thefirst conductive films 324 a and 325 a and the second conductive films324 b and 325 b. As a result, impurity regions of the one conductivitytype are formed in the semiconductor films 304 and 305. Secondconcentration impurity regions 330 and 331 of the one conductivity typeare positioned so as to overlap the second shape electrodes whereasthird concentration impurity regions 327 and 328 of the one conductivitytype are formed in regions outside the second shape electrodes. A thirdconcentration impurity region 329 of the one conductivity type is formedin the semiconductor film 306.

Thereafter, masks 332 and 333 are formed as shown in FIG. 9A to dope thesemiconductor film 304 with an impurity of the other conductivity typethrough third doping treatment. The resultant impurity regions are afourth concentration impurity region 335 of the other conductivity typeand a fifth concentration impurity region 334 of the other conductivitytype. A fifth concentration impurity region 336 of the otherconductivity type is formed in the semiconductor film 307.

Subsequently, a third insulating film 337 is formed and the impuritiesused to dope the semiconductor films are activated similar to EmbodimentMode 1.

A fourth insulating film 338 is then formed as shown in FIG. 10 and issubjected to heat treatment at 410C.° to hydrogenate the semiconductorfilms. A fifth insulating film 339 is formed next on the fourthinsulating film 338 from an organic insulating material. An organicinsulating material is used in order to level the outermost surface ofthe fifth insulating film. Then, contact holes piercing through thethird to fifth insulating films are formed by etching treatment. Wiringlines 340 to 343, a pixel electrode 345, a gate line 346, and wiringlines 344 and 347 are formed.

If the one conductivity type is n type and the other conductivity type(opposite to the one conductivity type) is p type, a driving circuit 405that has a p-channel TFT 400 and a first n-channel TFT 401 and a pixelportion 406 that has a second n-channel TFT 403 and a capacitor portion404 are formed on the same substrate through the above steps. Thecapacitor portion 404 is composed of the semiconductor film 307, a partof a second insulating film 361, and the first shape capacitance wiringline 314.

The p-channel TFT 400 of the driving circuit 405 has a channel formationregion 348, the fourth concentration impurity region 332 of the otherconductivity type which is positioned so as to overlap the secondelectrode 324 that serves as a gate electrode, and the fifthconcentration impurity region 333 of the other conductivity type whichis placed outside of the second electrode 324.

The first n-channel TFT 401 has a channel formation region 349, thesecond concentration impurity region (LDD region) 331 of the oneconductivity type which overlaps the second shape electrode 325 servingas a gate electrode, and the third concentration impurity region 328 ofthe one conductivity type that functions as a source region or a drainregion. The length of the LDD in the channel length direction is 0.5 to2.5 μm, preferably 1.5 μm. This LDD structure is for preventing TFTdegradation caused mainly by hot carrier effect. The n-channel TFT andthe p-channel TFT can be used to form a shift register circuit, a buffercircuit, a level shifter circuit, a latch circuit, etc. The structure ofthe first n-channel TFT 401 is suitable especially for a buffer circuitthat is high in driving voltage because the structure can preventdegradation by hot carrier effect.

The second n-channel TFT 403 of the pixel portion 406 has a channelformation region 350, the first concentration impurity region 316 of theone conductivity type which is formed outside of the first shapeelectrode 313 serving as a gate electrode, and the third concentrationimpurity region 329 of the one conductivity type that functions as asource region or a drain region. A fifth concentration impurity region336 of the other conductivity type is formed in the semiconductor film307 that functions as one of electrodes of the capacitor portion 404.

As described above, the gate electrode of the driving circuit portionand the gate electrode of the pixel portion are structured differentlyfrom each other in this embodiment mode to obtain TFTs having differentLDD structures. The LDD that overlaps a gate electrode can be formed ina self-aligning manner at high accuracy without using a photo mask.

Embodiment 1

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below withreference to FIGS. 1A to FIG. 6. Here, a detailed description is givenon a method of simultaneously forming on the same substrate a TFT for apixel portion and TFTs (an n-channel TFT and a p-channel TFT) fordriving circuits that are placed in the periphery of the pixel portion.

In FIG. 1A, alumino borosilicate glass is used for a substrate 101. Afirst insulating film is formed on the substrate 101. The firstinsulating film in this embodiment is a laminate of a first siliconoxynitride film 102 with a thickness of 50 nm and a second siliconoxynitride film 103 with a thickness of 100 nm. The film 102 is formedusing as reaction gas SiH₄, NH₃, and N₂O. The film 103 is formed usingas reaction gas SiH₄ and N₂O.

Semiconductor films 104 to 107 are semiconductors having a crystalstructure. The semiconductor films are obtained by forming an amorphoussemiconductor film on the first insulating film and crystallizing thefilm through a known crystallization method. In this embodiment, anamorphous silicon film is formed by deposition to have a thickness of 50nm and crystallized by irradiation of excimer laser light collected intoa linear beam by an optical system. The laser light is set to have apower density of 300 mJ/cm² and is shaped into a 500 μm linear beam toirradiate the entire surface of the amorphous silicon film at an overlapratio of 90 to 98%.

Alternatively, a continuous wave YVO₄ laser may be used. The laser isconverted into second harmonic by a wavelength conversion element, andan energy beam of 10 W is run over the film at a rate of 1 to 100 cm/secto crystallize the amorphous film.

After crystallization, the semiconductor films are doped with boron asan acceptor type impurity by ion doping in order to control thethreshold voltage of the TFTs. The doping concentration of the impuritycan be set suitably by an operator.

The thus obtained polycrystalline silicon film is divided into islandsby etching treatment to form the semiconductor films 104 to 107. Asilicon oxynitride film formed by plasma CVD using SiH₄ and N₂O to havea thickness of 110 nm is formed as a second insulating film 108 on thesemiconductor films.

A tantalum nitride film is formed as a first conductive film 109 on thesecond insulating film 108 by sputtering to have a thickness of 30 nm.Then, a tungsten film with a thickness of 300 nm is formed as a secondconductive film 110.

The thickness of the tantalum nitride film is determined by taking intoconsideration the doping efficiency of phosphorus that is used as an ntype impurity in ion doping (or the ability of the tantalum nitride filmto block phosphorus). FIG. 30 shows the phosphorus concentrationdistribution when the gate insulating film thickness is constant and thetantalum nitride film thickness is changed from 15 nm to 45 nm. Theacceleration voltage in the doping is set to 90 keV. The concentrationof phosphorus injected to the semiconductor films varies depending onthe thickness and materials of films (the gate insulating film and thetantalum nitride film) covering the semiconductor films. FIG. 31 showsthe phosphorus concentration profile when the thickness of the tantalumnitride film is converted into the thickness of the gate insulatingfilm. According to FIG. 31, a 2.4 to 2.66 times thicker gate insulatingfilm equals in phosphorus blocking ability with a tantalum nitride film.In other words, tantalum nitride exhibits higher phosphorus blockingability even though it is at smaller film thickness.

The thickness of the tantalum nitride film is determined by taking intoconsideration the resistance and the doping blocking ability. It can beconcluded from FIGS. 30 and 31 that the optimal thickness range for thetantalum nitride film is between 15 nm to 300 nm.

Next, masks 111 to 114 are formed from a photosensitive resist materialas shown in FIG. 1B. First etching treatment is then performed on thefirst conductive film 109 and the second conductive film 110. Theetching treatment employs ICP (inductively coupled plasma) etching. Nolimitation is put on selection of etching gas but CF₄, Cl₂, and O₂ areused to etch a W film and a tantalum nitride film. The gas flow ratethereof is set to 25:25:10, and an RF (13.56 MHz) power of 500 W isgiven to a coiled electrode at a pressure of 1 Pa for the etching. Inthis case, the substrate side (sample stage) also receives an RF (13.56MHz) power of 150 W to apply substantially negative self-bias voltage.Under these first etching conditions, mainly the W film is etched into agiven shape.

Thereafter, the etching gas is changed to CF₄ and Cl₂. The gas flow ratethereof is set to 30:30, and an RF (13.56 MHz) power of 500 W is givento a coiled electrode at a pressure of 1 Pa to generate plasma for JOsecond etching. The substrate side (sample stage) also receives an RF(13.56 MHz) power of 20 W to apply substantially negative self-biasvoltage. The mixture gas of CF₄ and Cl₂ etches the tantalum nitride filmand the W film at about the same rate. Thus formed are first shapeelectrodes 116 to 118 that are tapered around the edges and first shapewining lines 114 and 115. The electrodes are tapered at an angle of 45to 75°. In order to etch the films without leaving any residue on thesecond insulating film, it is preferable that the etching time isprolonged by 10 to 20%. Regions of the second insulating film 122 thatare not covered with the first shape electrodes 116 to 118 and the firstshape wiring lines 114 and 115 are etched and thinned by 20 to 50 nm.

First doping treatment employs ion doping in which ions are injectedwithout mass separation. In the doping, the first shape electrodes 116to 118 are used as masks and phosphine (PH₃) gas diluted with hydrogenor phosphine gas diluted with noble gas is employed to form firstconcentration n type impurity regions 123 to 126 in the semiconductorfilms 104 to 107. The first concentration n type impurity regions formedin this doping each have a phosphorus concentration of 1×10¹⁷ to 1×10¹⁹atoms/cm³.

Without removing the masks 111 to 114, second etching treatment isconducted next as shown in FIG. 2A. CF₄, Cl₂, and O₂ are used as etchinggas, the gas flow rate thereof is set to 20:20:20, and an RF (13.56 MHz)power of 500 W is given to a coiled electrode at a pressure of 1 Pa togenerate plasma for the etching. The substrate side (sample stage) alsoreceives an RF (13.56 MHz) power of 20 W to apply a self-bias voltagelower than that in the first etching treatment. Under these etchingconditions, the W film used as the second conductive film is etched. TheW film is thus subjected to anisotropic etching to form second shapeelectrodes 127 to 129 and second shape wiring lines 130 and 131. Regionsof the second insulating film that are not covered with the second shapeelectrodes 127 to 129 and the second shape wiring lines 130 and 131 areetched and thinned by 20 to 50 nm.

A mask 133 for covering the entire semiconductor film 104, a mask 134for covering the second shape electrode 129 that is placed on thesemiconductor film 106, and a mask 134 for covering the semiconductorfilm 107 are then formed for second doping treatment. Through the seconddoping treatment, a second concentration n type impurity region isformed in the semiconductor film 105 whereas third concentration n typeimpurity regions are formed in the semiconductor films 105 and 106. Inthis ion doping, phosphine is used and the dose is set to 1.5×10¹⁴atoms/cm³, the acceleration voltage to 100 keV.

A second concentration n type impurity region 135 is formed in aself-aligning manner at a position overlapping a first conductive film128 a that constitutes the second shape electrode 128. The impuritygiven by ion doping transmits through the first conductive film 128 abefore the semiconductor film is doped. Therefore the secondconcentration is much lower than impurity concentration in the thirdconcentration n type impurity regions. The impurity concentration in theregion 135 is 1×10¹⁶ to 1×10¹⁷ atoms/cm³. Third concentration impurityregions 136 and 137 are doped with phosphorus so as to achieve aconcentration of 1×10²⁰ to 1×10²¹ atoms/cm³.

Next, a mask 138 is formed as shown in FIG. 3A to conduct third dopingtreatment. In the doping, diborane (B₂H₆) gas diluted with hydrogen ordiboraine gas diluted with noble gas is used to form a fourthconcentration p type impurity region 139 and a fifth concentration ptype impurity region 140 in the semiconductor film 104. The fourthconcentration p type impurity region is positioned so as to overlap thesecond shape electrode 127 and is doped with boron in a concentration of1×10¹⁸ to 1×10²⁰ atoms/cm³. The fifth concentration impurity region 140is doped with boron in a concentration of 2×10²⁰ to 3×10²¹ atoms/cm³. Afifth concentration p type impurity region 142 and a fourthconcentration p type impurity region 141 are formed in a part of thesemiconductor film 107 that is used to form a storage capacitor in thepixel portion.

Through the above steps, either a region doped with phosphorus or aregion doped with boron is given to each of the semiconductor films. Thesecond shape electrodes 127 to 129 serve as gate electrodes. The secondshape wiring line 130 forms one of electrodes that constitute thestorage capacitor in the pixel portion. The second shape wiring line 131serves as a data line in the pixel portion.

Next, a silicon oxynitride film is formed as a third insulating film 143by plasma CVD to a thickness of 50 nm. Then the impurity elements usedto dope the semiconductor films are activated by irradiating thesemiconductor films with laser light of second harmonic (532 nm) of YAGlaser as shown in FIG. 3B.

As shown in FIG. 4, a fourth insulating film 144 is then formed formsilicon nitride by plasma CVD to a thickness of 50 nm. Heat treatment at410° C. is conducted in a clean oven to hydrogenate the semiconductorfilms with hydrogen released from the silicon nitride film.

A fifth insulating film 145 is formed next on the fourth insulating film144 from an acrylic. Then contact holes are formed. In this etchingtreatment, regions of the third to fifth insulating films that areplaced in an external input terminal portion are removed. A titaniumfilm and an aluminum film are layered to form wiring lines 146 to 149, apixel electrode 151, a scanning line 152, a connection electrode 150,and a wiring line 153 that is connected to an external input terminal.

Thus formed on the same substrate are a driving circuit 205 that has ap-channel TFT 200 and a first n-channel TFT 201 and a pixel portion 206that has a second n-channel TFT 203 and a capacitor portion 204. Thecapacitor portion 204 is composed of the semiconductor film 107, a partof the second insulating film 122, and the first shape capacitancewiring line 130.

The p-channel TFT 200 of the driving circuit 205 has a channel formationregion 154, the fifth concentration p type impurity region 140 placedoutside of the second electrode 127 that serves as a gate electrode (theregion 140 functions as a source region or a drain region), and thefourth concentration p type impurity region that overlaps the secondelectrode 127.

The first n-channel TFT 201 has a channel formation region 155, thesecond concentration n type impurity region 124 (LDD) overlapping thesecond shape electrode 128 that serves as a gate electrode, and thethird concentration n type impurity region 135 that functions as asource region or a drain region. The length of the LDD in the channellength direction is 0.5 to 2.5 μm, preferably 1.5 μm. This LDD structureis for preventing TFT degradation caused mainly by hot carrier effect.The n-channel TFT and the p-channel TFT can be used to form a shiftregister circuit, a buffer circuit, a level shifter circuit, a latchcircuit, etc. The structure of the first n-channel TFT 201 is suitableespecially for a buffer circuit that is high in driving voltage becausethe structure can prevent degradation by hot carrier effect.

The second n-channel TFT 203 of the pixel portion 206 has a channelformation region 156, the first concentration n type impurity region 125formed outside of the second shape electrode 129 that serves as a gateelectrode, and the third concentration n type impurity region 136 thatfunctions as a source region or a drain region. P type impurity regions141 and 142 are formed in the semiconductor film 107 that functions asone of electrodes of the capacitor portion 204.

The pixel portion 206 has the pixel electrode 151 and the connectionelectrode 150 that connects the data line 131 to the third concentrationn type impurity region 136 of the semiconductor film 106. The pixelportion also has the gate wiring line 152, which, though not shown inthe drawing, is connected to the second shape electrode 129 thatfunctions as a gate electrode.

A top view of the pixel portion 206 is shown in FIG. 5. The top view inFIG. 5 shows substantially one dot, and uses symbols common to those inFIG. 4. A sectional structure taken along the line A-A′ in FIG. 5corresponds to FIG. 4. In the pixel structure of FIG. 5, a gate wiringline and a gate electrode are formed on different layers so that thegate wiring line overlaps a semiconductor film and obtains an additionalfunction as a light-shielding film. The edge of a pixel electrode ispositioned so as to overlap a source wiring line in order to shield thegap between pixel electrodes against light. This structure eliminatesthe need to form a light-shielding film (black matrix). As a result, theaperture ratio is improved compared to prior art.

As described above, the present invention makes it possible to form onthe same substrate an n-channel TFT having LDD that overlaps a gateelectrode and an n-channel TFT having LDD that does not overlap a gateelectrode. The two types of TFTs are separately arranged correspondingto circuits of different operation conditions, for example, one TFT in adriving circuit portion and the other TFT in a pixel portion. This ispremised on the p-channel TFT having a single drain structure.

FIG. 6 is a circuit block diagram showing an example of the circuitstructure of the active matrix substrate. The substrate shown in FIG. 6has a pixel portion 601, a data signal line driving circuit 602, and ascanning signal line driving circuit 606 that are composed of TFTs.

The data signal line driving circuit 602 is composed of a shift register603, latches 604 and 605, a buffer circuit, and other circuits. Clocksignals and start signals are inputted to the shift register 603.Digital data signals and latch signals are inputted to the latches. Thescanning signal line driving circuit 606 is also composed of a shiftregister, a buffer circuit, and others. The pixel portion 601 can havean arbitrary number of pixels. If a display device aims at the XGAlevel, the pixel portion has to have 1024×768 pixels.

This active matrix substrate can be used to manufacture a display deviceof active matrix driving. The active matrix substrate in this embodimenthas its pixel electrode formed from a light reflective material, andtherefore can make a reflective liquid crystal display device. A liquidcrystal display device as well as a light emitting device in which anorganic light emitting device is used for a pixel portion can bemanufactured from the active matrix substrate. In this way, an activematrix substrate for a reflective display device is obtained.

Embodiment 2

Another embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to FIGS. 7A to 10. This embodiment also gives a description ona method of simultaneously forming on the same substrate a TFT for apixel portion and TFTs (an n-channel TFT and a p-channel TFT) fordriving circuits that are placed in the periphery of the pixel portion.The description on the substrate, the insulating films, thesemiconductor films, and the conductive films in Embodiment 1 applies toa substrate 301, first insulating films 302 and 303, semiconductor films304 to 307, a second insulating film 308, a first conductive film 309,and a second conductive film 310 in FIG. 7A.

Masks 311 and 312 are formed in FIG. 7B. The mask 311 covers the drivingcircuit portion whereas the mask 312 covers the pixel portion. With themasks covering the pixel and driving circuit portions, first etchingtreatment is conducted to form a first shape electrode 313 and firstshape wiring lines 314 and 315 (the electrode is composed of a firstconductive him 313 a and a second conductive film 313 b, the wiring line314 of a first conductive film 314 a and a second conductive film 314 b,the wiring line 315 of a first conductive film 315 a and a secondconductive film 315 b). The etching conditions are identical with thoseof the first etching treatment in Embodiment 1. Next, the semiconductorfilms 306 and 307 are doped with phosphorus as an impurity in firstdoping treatment by ion doping to form first concentration n typeimpurity regions 316 and 360. The first concentration n type impurityregions each have a phosphorus concentration of 1×10¹⁷ to 1×10¹⁹atoms/cm³.

The masks 311 and 312 are removed and then a mask 317 that covers thefirst shape electrode 313 and the first shape wiring lines 314 and 315is formed as shown in FIG. 8A. Further, masks 318 to 320 are formed onthe driving circuit portion to form first shape electrodes 321 to 323 inthe driving circuit portion through second etching treatment. The secondetching treatment is set to the same conditions as the first etchingtreatment conditions of this embodiment.

The second etching treatment is followed by third etching treatment asshown in FIG. 8B. The third etching treatment is for selectively etchingthe W film that is formed as the second conductive film. As a result,second shape electrodes 324 to 326 that have projections of firstconductive films 324 a to 326 a are formed. The etching conditions inthe third etching treatment are the same as the etching conditions inthe second etching treatment of Embodiment 1.

The second shape electrodes 324 and 325 are used as masks in seconddoping treatment, utilizing the film thickness difference between thefirst conductive films 324 a and 325 a and the second conductive films324 b and 325 b. As a result, the semiconductor films 304 and 305 aredoped with phosphorus to form n type impurity regions. The second dopingtreatment uses 5% PH₃ diluted with hydrogen and sets the dose to1.6×10¹⁴ atoms/cm³, the acceleration voltage to 100 keV. This makes itpossible to form second concentration n type impurity regions 330 and331 and third concentration n type impurity regions 327 and 328 in onedoping. The second concentration n type impurity regions 330 and 331 arepositioned so as to overlap the second shape electrodes, and have aphosphorus concentration of 1×10¹⁶ to 1×10¹⁷ atoms/cm³ due to thepresence of the first conductive film. The third concentration n typeimpurity regions 327 and 328 are formed in regions outside the secondshape electrodes, and have a phosphorus concentration of 1×10²⁰ to1×10²¹ atoms/cm³. A third concentration n type impurity region 329 isformed in the semiconductor film 306.

Thereafter, masks 332 and 333 are formed as shown in FIG. 9A to dope thesemiconductor film 304 with boron through third doping treatment. Theresultant impurity regions are a fourth concentration p type impurityregion 335 and a fifth concentration p type impurity region 334. A fifthconcentration p type impurity region 336 is formed in the semiconductorfilm 307.

Subsequent steps are identical with the steps in Embodiment 1. A thirdinsulating film 337 is formed and the impurities used to dope thesemiconductor films are activated. A fourth insulating film 338 is thenformed as shown in FIG. 10 and is subjected to heat treatment at 410C.°to hydrogenate the semiconductor films. A fifth insulating film 339 isformed next on the fourth insulating film 338 from an organic insulatingmaterial. Then, contact holes are formed by etching treatment. Wiringlines 340 to 343, a pixel electrode 345, a gate line 346, and wiringlines 344 and 347 are formed.

Thus formed on the same substrate are a driving circuit 405 that has ap-channel TFT 400 and a first n-channel TFT 401 and a pixel portion 406that has a second n-channel TFT 403 and a capacitor portion 404. Thecapacitor portion 404 is composed of the semiconductor film 307, a partof a second insulating film 361, and the first shape capacitance wiringline 314.

The p-channel TFT 400 of the driving circuit 405 has a channel formationregion 348, the fourth concentration impurity region 332 of the otherconductivity type which is positioned so as to overlap the secondelectrode 324 that serves as a gate electrode, and the fifthconcentration impurity region 333 of the other conductivity type whichis placed outside of the second electrode 324.

The first n-channel TFT 401 has a channel formation region 349, thesecond concentration impurity region (LDD region) 331 of the oneconductivity type which overlaps the second shape electrode 325 servingas a gate electrode, and the third concentration impurity region 328 ofthe one conductivity type which functions as a source region or a drainregion. The length of the LDD in the channel length direction is 0.5 to2.5 μm, preferably 1.5 μm. This LDD structure is for preventing TFTdegradation caused mainly by hot carrier effect. The n-channel TFT andthe p-channel TFT can be used to form a shift register circuit, a buffercircuit, a level shifter circuit, a latch circuit, etc. The structure ofthe first n-channel TFT 401 is suitable especially for a buffer circuitthat is high in driving voltage because the structure can preventdegradation by hot carrier effect.

The second n-channel TFT 403 of the pixel portion 406 has a channelformation region 350, the first concentration impurity region 316 of theone conductivity type which is formed outside of the first shapeelectrode 313 serving as a gate electrode, and the third concentrationimpurity region 329 of the one conductivity type which functions as asource region or a drain region. A fifth concentration impurity region336 of the other conductivity type is formed in the semiconductor film307 that functions as one of electrodes of the capacitor portion 404.

As described above, the gate electrode of the driving circuit portionand the gate electrode of the pixel portion are structured differentlyfrom each other in this embodiment to obtain TFTs having different LDDstructures. The LDD that overlaps a gate electrode can be formed in aself-aligning manner at high accuracy without using a photo mask. Anactive matrix substrate for a reflective display device is thusobtained.

Embodiment 3

This embodiment describes the structure of an active matrix substratefor a transmissive display device with reference to FIGS. 11A and 11B.FIGS. 11A and 11B show the structure of the pixel portion 406 in theactive matrix substrate formed in Embodiment 2. The second n-channel TFT403 and the capacitor portion 404 are obtained in accordance withEmbodiment 2.

FIG. 11A shows contact holes formed after the fourth insulating film 338and the fifth insulating film 339 are formed and a transparent electrode370 that is patterned into a given shape on the fifth insulating film339. The transparent conductive film 370 is 100 nm in thickness. Indiumoxide, tin oxide, or zinc oxide, or a compound of these oxides can beused to form the transparent conductive film. A transparent conductivefilm 371 is formed on the terminal portion.

Electrodes 373 and 374 that are connected to the transparent electrode370 are formed next as shown in FIG. 11B, as well as a gate line 375 anda connection electrode 372. The electrodes 373, 374, and 372 and theline 375 are formed from a laminate consisting of a titanium film with athickness of 100 nm and an aluminum film with a thickness of 300 nm. Theactive matrix substrate is structured as above to make a transmissivedisplay device. The structure of this embodiment can be applied to theactive matrix substrate of Embodiment 1.

Embodiment 4

This embodiment describes a process of manufacturing a liquid crystaldisplay device of active matrix driving from the active matrix substrateobtained in Embodiment 3. The description is given with reference toFIG. 12.

After the active matrix substrate in the state of FIG. 11B is obtained,an oriented film 383 is formed on the active matrix substrate andsubjected to rubbing treatment. Though not shown in the drawing, priorto the oriented film 383, columnar spacers may be formed at desiredpositions by patterning an organic resin film such as an acrylic resinfilm. The spacers are for keeping distance between substrates. Insteadof columnar spacers, spherical spacers may be sprayed onto the entiresurface of the substrate.

Next, an opposite electrode 381 is formed on an opposite substrate 380,and an oriented film 382 is formed on the electrode and subjected torubbing treatment. The opposite electrode 381 is formed of ITO. Then,the opposite substrate is bonded to the active matrix substrate on whichthe pixel portion and the driving circuits are formed, using a sealingagent (not shown). The sealing agent has a filler mixed therein and thefiller, together with the spacers, keeps the distance between the twosubstrates while they are bonded. Then, a liquid crystal material 385 isinjected between the substrates and an end-sealing agent is used tocompletely seal the substrates. A known liquid crystal material can beused as the material 385.

Thus completed is the active matrix driving liquid crystal displaydevice shown in FIG. 12. The transmissive active matrix substratemanufactured in Embodiment 3 is used in the example shown here, but thereflective active matrix substrate manufactured in Embodiment 1 or 2also can make a liquid crystal display device.

Embodiment 5

FIG. 13 shows an example of the structure of a pixel portion in a lightemitting device of active matrix driving method to which the presentinvention is applied. An n-channel TFT 203 and a p-channel TFT 200 of apixel portion 450 are manufactured in accordance with the process ofEmbodiment 1. The surface of a fifth insulating film 501 is made denseby plasma treatment using nitrogen or inert gas. Typically, argon plasmatreatment is employed and the densification is achieved by forming onthe surface a very thin film that mainly contains carbon. Then, contactholes are formed to form wiring lines. Titanium, aluminum, and the likeare used for the wiring lines.

In the pixel portion 450, a data line 502 is connected to the sourceside of the n-channel TFT 203 and a wiring line 503 on the drain side isconnected to a gate electrode of the n-channel TFT 203. The source sideof the p-channel TFT 200 is connected to a power supply wiring line 505whereas an electrode 504 on the drain side is connected to an anode of alight emitting element 451.

The light emitting device in this embodiment has organic light emittingdevices arranged to form a matrix. An organic light emitting device 451is composed of an anode, a cathode, and an organic compound layer thatis formed between the anode and the cathode. An anode 506 is formed fromITO after the wiring lines are formed. The organic compound layercontains a combination of a hole transporting material of higher holemobility, an electron transporting material of higher electron mobility,a light emitting material, and others. These materials may be formedinto layers or may be mixed into one.

The organic compound materials in total make a thin film of about 100nm. Accordingly, the surface of the ITO film for forming the anode hasto be leveled well. If the surface is poorly leveled, at worst, it cancause a short circuit with the cathode formed on the organic compoundlayer. The short circuit may be avoided by another measure, namely, byforming an insulating layer 508 with a thickness of 1 to 5 nm. Theinsulating layer 508 is formed from polyimide, polyimideamide,polyamide, acrylic, or the like.

A cathode 510 is formed from an alkaline metal such as MgAg or LiF, orfrom an alkaline earth metal. Details about the structure of the organiccompound layer 509 may be set freely.

The organic compound layer 509 and the cathode 510 cannot receive wettreatment (etching with chemicals, water washing, or like othertreatment). Therefore, a partition wall layer 507 is formed from aphotosensitive resin material on the organic insulating film 501,skirting the anode 506. The edge of the anode 506 is covered with thepartition wall layer 507. Specifically, a negative resist is applied andbaked to give the partition wall layer 507 a thickness of 1 to 2 μm.Alternatively, the partition wall layer is formed from a photosensitiveacrylic or photosensitive polyimide.

A material containing magnesium (Mg), lithium (Li), or calcium (Ca)small in work function is used for the cathode 510. Preferably, theelectrode is formed from MgAg (a material obtained by mixing Mg and Agat a ratio of Mg:Ag=10:1). Examples of other electrodes usable as thecathode 510 include a MgAgAl electrode, a LiAl electrode, and a LiFAlelectrode. On the cathode, an insulating film 511 that is a siliconnitride film or a DLC film is formed to have a thickness of 2 to 30 nm,preferably 5 to 10 nm. A DLC film can be formed by plasma CVD and cancover the edge of the partition wall layer 507 well even when it isformed at 100° C. or lower. The internal stress of a DLC film can beeased by mixing a minute amount of argon therein, allowing the film toserve as a protective film. A DLC film is an excellent gas barrieragainst oxygen as well as CO, CO₂, and H₂O, and is therefore suitablefor the insulating film 511 that is used as a barrier film.

In FIG. 13, the n-channel TFT 203 used for switching has a multi-gatestructure whereas the p-channel TFT 200 used for current control has LDDoverlapping a gate electrode. The present invention is capable offorming TFTs of different LDD structures by the same process. Theexample shown in FIG. 13 is a preferred application of the presentinvention to a light emitting device, where TFTs having different LDDstructures are formed in the pixel portion to suit their differentfunctions (the n-channel TFT 203 with the OFF current lowered forswitching and the p-channel TFT 200 strong against hot carrier injectionfor current controlling). As a result, a highly reliable light emittingdevice capable of excellent image displaying (in other words, ahigh-performance light emitting device) can be obtained.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the structure of the light emitting devicethat has the pixel portion 450 described above and a driving circuitportion 460. On the insulating film 511 formed in the pixel portion 450,an organic resin 511 is placed to fill the space between the insulatingfilm and a substrate 512. The device is thus sealed. The airtightnessmay be further enhanced by providing a sealing member around the edges.A flexible printed circuit FPC) is attached to a terminal portion 453.

Now, a perspective view in FIG. 15 is used to describe the structure ofthe active matrix self-luminous device of this embodiment. The activematrix driving light emitting device of this embodiment has on a glasssubstrate 601 a pixel portion 602, a signal line driving circuit 603,and a data line driving circuit 604. A switching TFT 605 in the pixelportion is an n-channel TFT, and is placed at the intersection of a gatewiring line 606 and a source wiring line 607. The gate wiring line isconnected to the gate side driving circuit 603 and the source wiringline is connected to the source side driving circuit 604. A drain regionof the switching TFT 605 is connected to a gate of a current controllingTFT 608.

The data line side of the current controlling TFT 608 is connected to apower supply line 609. In the structure of this embodiment, groundelectric potential (earth electric potential) is given to the powersupply line 609. A drain region of the current controlling TFT 608 isconnected to an organic light emitting device 610. A given voltage (10to 12 V, in this embodiment) is applied to a cathode of the organiclight emitting device 610.

An FPC 611 serving as an external input/output terminal is provided withinput/output wiring lines (connection wiring lines) 612 and 613 forsending signals to the driving circuits, and an input/output wiring line614 connected to the power supply line 609. As described above, the TFTsand the organic light emitting device are combined to constitute thepixel portion of the light emitting device.

Embodiment 6

An example of forming the semiconductor film used in Embodiment 1 or 2will be described with reference to FIGS. 16A to 16E. The methodillustrated in FIGS. 16A to 16E involves gettering that is conductedafter the entire surface of a semiconductor film having an amorphousstructure is doped with a metal element having a catalytic function forcrystallization.

In FIG. 16A, a substrate 701 is formed from, not limitedly butpreferably barium borosilicate glass, alumino borosilicate glass, orquartz. A first insulating film is formed on the surface of thesubstrate 701. The first insulating film consists of a first siliconoxynitride film 702 formed by plasma CVD to have a thickness of 50 nmfrom SiH₄, NH₃, and N₂O, and a second silicon oxynitride film 703 formedby plasma CVD to have a thickness of 100 nm from SiH₄ and N₂O. The firstinsulating film is provided to prevent an alkaline metal contained inthe glass substrate from diffusing in a semiconductor film to be formedthereon. If quartz is used to form the substrate, the first insulatingfilm may be omitted.

A semiconductor material mainly containing silicon is used for asemiconductor film 704 that has an amorphous structure and is formed onthe first insulating film. Typically, the semiconductor film 704 is anamorphous silicon film or amorphous silicon germanium film formed byplasma CVD, reduced pressure CVD, or sputtering to have a thickness of10 to 100 nm. In order to obtain satisfactory quality crystals, theconcentration of impurities such as oxygen and nitrogen contained in thesemiconductor film 704 having an amorphous structure should be reducedto 5×10¹⁸ atoms/cm³ or lower. These impurities hinder crystallization ofan amorphous semiconductor and, after crystallization, increase thedensity of trap center and recombination center. Therefore, it isdesirable to use an ultra vacuum CVD apparatus equipped with a mirrorfinish (field polishing treatment) reaction chamber and an oil-freevacuum exhaust system, as well as to use a material gas of high purity.

Thereafter, the surface of the semiconductor film 704 having anamorphous structure is doped with a metal element having a catalyticeffect that accelerates crystallization. Examples of the metal elementhaving a catalytic effect that accelerates crystallization of asemiconductor film include iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co),ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), palladium (Pd), osmium (Os), iridium (Ir),platinum (Pt), copper (Cu), and gold (Au). One or more kinds of metalelements selected from the above can be used. Typically, nickel ischosen and a nickel acetate solution containing 1 to 100 ppm of nickelby weight is applied by a spinner to form a catalyst-containing layer705. To make sure the solution is applied well, surface treatment isperformed on the semiconductor film 704 having an amorphous structure.The surface treatment includes forming a very thin oxide film from anozone-containing aqueous solution, etching the oxide film with a mixtureof fluoric acid and a hydrogen peroxide aqueous solution to form a cleansurface, and again forming a very thin oxide film from theozone-containing solution. Since a surface of a semiconductor film suchas a silicon film is inherently hydrophobic, the nickel acetate solutioncan be applied evenly by forming an oxide film in this way.

The method of forming the catalyst-containing layer 705 is not limitedthereto, of course, and sputtering, evaporation, plasma treatment, orthe like may be used instead. The catalyst-containing layer 705 may beformed prior to the semiconductor film 704 having an amorphousstructure, in other words, may be formed on the first insulating film.

While keeping the semiconductor film 704 having an amorphous structurein contact with the catalyst-containing later 705, heat treatment forcrystallization is carried out. Furnace annealing using an electricfurnace, or rapid thermal annealing (hereinafter referred to as RTA)using a halogen lamp, a metal halide lamp, a xenon arc lamp, a carbonarc lamp, a high pressure sodium lamp, a high pressure mercury lamp,etc. is employed for the heat treatment. Considering the productivity,RTA is preferred.

If RTA is chosen, a lamp light source for heating is lit for 1 to 60seconds, preferably 30 to 60 seconds, which is repeated 1 to 10 times,preferably 2 to 6 times. The intensity of light emitted from the lamplight source can be set arbitrarily, as long as the semiconductor filmis heated to reach 600 to 1000° C., preferably 650 to 750° C., in aninstant. When the temperature thereof reaches this high, thesemiconductor film alone is instantaneously heated and the substrate 700is not deformed. The semiconductor film having an amorphous structure isthus crystallized to obtain a semiconductor film 706 having a crystalstructure which is shown in FIG. 16B. Crystallization by such treatmentis achieved only when the catalyst-containing layer is provided.

If furnace annealing is chosen instead, heat treatment at 500° C. isconducted for an hour to release hydrogen contained in the semiconductorfilm 704 having an amorphous structure prior to the heat treatment forcrystallization. Then, the substrate receives heat treatment in anelectric furnace in a nitrogen atmosphere at 550 to 600° C., preferablyat 580° C., for four hours to crystallize the semiconductor film. Thesemiconductor film 706 having a crystal structure and shown in FIG. 16Bis thus formed.

It is effective to irradiate the semiconductor film 706 having a crystalstructure with laser light in order to raise the crystallization ratio(the ratio of crystal components to the entire volume of the film) andrepair defects remaining in crystal grains. Examples of the laser lightusable include excimer laser light having an wavelength of 400 nm orless and second or third harmonic of YAG laser. In any case, pulse laserlight having a repetition frequency of 10 to 1000 Hz is used andcollected by an optical system into a beam of 100 to 400 mJ/cm² toirradiate the semiconductor film 706 having a crystal structure at anoverlap ratio of 90 to 95%.

The thus obtained semiconductor film 706 having a crystal structure hasa remaining catalytic element (nickel, here). Though the catalyticelement is not uniformly distributed in the film, the concentrationthereof higher than 1×10¹⁹ atoms/cm³ in average. The semiconductor filmwith the catalytic element remained therein can form a TFT and othersemiconductor elements but it is preferred to remove the remainingcatalytic element by gettering in accordance with the following method.

First, a thin barrier layer 707 is formed on the surface of thesemiconductor film 706 having a crystal structure as shown in FIG. 16C.The thickness of the barrier layer is not particularly limited. A simpleway to obtain the barrier layer is to form a chemical oxide by treatingthe surface with ozone water. A chemical oxide can be formed also whentreating with an aqueous solution in which hydrogen peroxide water ismixed with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, or nitric acid. Otherusable methods include plasma treatment in an oxidization atmosphere,and oxidization treatment by ozone generated through UV irradiation inan atmosphere containing oxygen. Alternatively, a thin oxide film formedby heating in a clean oven until it reaches 200 to 350° C. may be usedas the barrier layer. An oxide film formed by plasma CVD, sputtering, orevaporation to have a thickness of 1 to 5 nm may also be used as thebarrier layer.

On the barrier layer, a semiconductor film 708 is formed to have athickness of 25 to 250 nm. The semiconductor film 708 is typically anamorphous silicon film containing 0.01 to 20 atomic % of argon which isformed by sputtering using argon. The semiconductor film 708, which isto be removed later, is preferably a low density film in order toincrease the selective ratio to the semiconductor film 706 having acrystal structure in etching. When an amorphous silicon film is dopedwith a noble gas element to take the noble gas element in, a getteringsite is obtained.

One or more kinds of elements selected from the group consisting ofhelium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), and xenon (Xe) areused as the noble gas element. The present invention is characterized inthat the noble gas elements are used as ion sources to form a getteringsite and that the noble gas elements are injected to the semiconductorfilm by ion doping or ion implantation. There are two reasons forinjection of ions of the noble gas elements. One is to form danglingbonds by the injection so that the semiconductor film is distorted. Theother is to give distortion by injecting the ions in lattice cells. Bothof the purposes are fulfilled by injecting ions of inert gas. Inparticular, the latter is achieved markedly well when an element that islarger in atom radius than silicon, such as argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), orxenon (Xe), is used.

To make sure the gettering is conducted thoroughly, heat treatment isneeded at this point. The heat treatment is achieved by furnaceannealing or RTA. If furnace annealing is chosen, heat treatment isconducted in a nitrogen atmosphere at 450 to 600° C. for 0.5 to 12hours. If RTA is chosen, a lamp light source for heating is lit for 1 to60 seconds, preferably 30 to 60 seconds, which is repeated 1 to 10times, preferably 2 to 6 times. The intensity of light emitted from thelamp light source can be set arbitrarily, as long as the semiconductorfilm is heated to reach 600 to 1000° C., preferably 700 to 750° C., inan instant.

During gettering, the catalytic element in a to-be-gettered region (trapsite) is released by thermal energy and is moved to the gettering sitethrough diffusion. Accordingly, gettering is dependent on the processtemperature and gettering, progresses in a shorter period of time at ahigher temperature. In FIG. 16E, the distance the catalytic elementmoves during gettering is about the same as the thickness of thesemiconductor film, and therefore gettering in the present invention iscompleted in a relatively short period of time.

This heat treatment does not crystallize the semiconductor film 708 thatcontains a noble gas element in a concentration of 1×10²⁰ atoms/cm³ orhigher. This is supposedly because the noble gas element is notre-discharged in the above process temperature range and the remainingelements hinder crystallization of the semiconductor film.

After the gettering step is ended, the amorphous semiconductor film 708is removed by selective etching. The etching method employed may be dryetching by ClF₃ without using plasma, or wet etching using hydrazine oran alkaline solution such as an aqueous solution that containstetraethyl ammonium hydroxide (chemical formula: (CH₃)₄NOH). The barrierlayer 707 functions as an etching stopper at this point. Thereafter, thebarrier layer 707 is removed using fluoric acid.

In this way, a semiconductor film 710 having a crystal structure inwhich the concentration of the catalytic element is reduced to 1×10¹⁷atoms/cm³ or lower is obtained as shown in FIG. 16E. The thus formedsemiconductor film 710 having a crystal structure is a mass of thinrod-like crystals, or thin flattened rod-like crystals due to the effectof the catalytic element. Macroscopically, each of the crystals growswith a specific orientation. The semiconductor film 710 formed inaccordance with this embodiment to have a crystal structure can beapplied to the semiconductor film of Embodiment 1 or 2.

Embodiment 7

Another method of gettering the catalytic element remaining in thesemiconductor film 706 of Embodiment 8 which has a crystal structurewill be described with reference to FIGS. 17A to 17C. A silicon oxidefilm is formed as a mask on the semiconductor film 706 having a crystalstructure to have a thickness of 150 nm. After a resist mask 712 isformed, the silicon oxide film is etched to obtain a mask insulatingfilm 711. Then, a noble gas element alone, a noble gas element plusphosphorus, or phosphorus alone is injected to the semiconductor film706 having a crystal structure by ion doping to form a gettering site713.

Thereafter, heat treatment is conducted in a nitrogen atmosphere at 450to 600° C. for 0.5 to 12 hours by furnace annealing as shown in FIG.17B. Through this heat treatment, the catalytic element remaining in thesemiconductor film 706 having a crystal structure is moved to thegettering site 713 and is gathered in there.

The mask insulating film 711 and the gettering site are then removed byetching to obtain the semiconductor film 710 having a crystal structure.The semiconductor film 710 formed in accordance with this embodiment tohave a crystal structure can be applied to the semiconductor film ofEmbodiment 1 or 2.

Embodiment 8

A silicon nitride film with a thickness of 1 to 10 nm may be used as thefirst insulating film formed on the substrate 701 in Embodiment 6. Thefilm is referred to as first insulating film 720. In FIG. 29, the firstinsulating film 720 is used and a semiconductor film 706 having acrystal structure, a barrier layer 707, a semiconductor film 708, and asemiconductor film 709 doped with a noble gas element, which are formedin accordance with Embodiment 6, are layered to receive heat treatmentfor gettering. A catalytic element such as nickel is by nature trappedby oxygen or in the vicinity of oxygen. Accordingly, using a siliconnitride film for the first insulating film facilitates moving of thecatalytic element from the semiconductor film 706 having a crystalstructure to the semiconductor film 708 or to the semiconductor film 709doped with a noble gas element.

Embodiment 9

As liquid crystal television sets become popular and the screen sizethereof becomes larger, the problem of wiring line delay in data linesand gate lines cannot be ignored any longer. For example, the pixelstructure shown in Embodiment 1 is on one hand capable of providing ahigher aperture ratio but, on the other hand, needs to deal with theproblem of wiring line delay when the screen size is increased since thesame material is used to form a data line and a gate electrode.

When a display device has a pixel density of VGA level, there are 480gate wiring lines and 640 source wiring lines and, in the case of XGAlevel, 768 gate wiring lines and 1024 source wiring lines. As to thescreen size of the display region, a 13 inch display measures 340 mm indiagonal length whereas it is 460 mm for a 18 inch display. Thisembodiment presents a method of solving the delay problem and reducingthe area required for wiring to the minimum in those display devices.

A gate electrode of a TFT in this embodiment is formed from a laminateof at least two types of conductive films as in Embodiment Mode 1 orEmbodiment 1. Al and Cu are preferable as low resistive materials andalso have high conductivity. However, Al and Cu are weak against heatand corrosion, which have to be overcome somehow.

Specifically, the countermeasures include using a metal nitride materialsuch as tantalum nitride and titanium nitride, or a high melting pointmaterial such as Mo and W, for a first conductive film that is incontact with a gate insulating film, and employing a material that canserve as a barrier for blocking diffusion of Al and Cu. A secondconductive film is formed from Al or Cu and a third conductive film isformed thereon using Ti or W. This is for lowering the contactresistance with a wiring line to be formed on the conductive film, andfor protecting Al or Cu which is oxidized relatively easily.

FIG. 18 shows an example in which a W film is used as the firstconductive film, a Al film is used for the second conductive film, and aTi film is used for the third conductive film to form a gate electrode,a data line, and a capacitance line. A driving circuit portion 205 and apixel portion 206 are structured in accordance with Embodiment 1.

In first etching treatment, if an ICP etching apparatus is employed,BCl₃, Cl₂, and O₂ are used as etching gas, the flow rate thereof is setto 65:10:5, and the pressure is set to 1.2 Pa. A high frequency power isapplied to the substrate side so that it is substantially biasednegative. Under these conditions, the Al film is etched and then theetching gas is changed to CF₄, Cl₂, and O₂ (the flow rate is set to25:25:10) to etch the W film.

In second etching treatment, BCl₃, and Cl₂ are used as etching gas, theflow rate thereof is set to 20:60, and a high frequency power is appliedto the substrate side so that it is substantially biased negative. As aresult, the Al film and the Ti film are selectively etched to formsecond shape electrodes 127 to 129 and second shape wiring lines 130 to132 shown in FIG. 18 (the electrodes and wiring lines are formed fromcombinations of first conductive films 127 e to 132 e, second conductivefilms 127 f to 132 f, and third conductive films 127 g to 132 g).

In FIG. 18, the wiring line resistance is sufficiently lowered byforming a data line 131 and a gate line from Al. Accordingly, thesubstrate can be applied to a display device with 4 inch or larger pixelportion (screen size). On the other hand, Cu is suitable for the wiringlines if it is desired to raise the current density of a wiring linesuch as the power supply line of the light emitting device shown inEmbodiment 5. A Cu wiring line is characterized by having higherresistance against electromigration than an Al wiring line.

Embodiment 10

The first n-channel TFT shown in Embodiment 1 or 2 can be an enhancementtype TFT or a depression type TFT by doping the semiconductor film thatserves as a channel formation region with an element belonging to Group15 in the periodic table (preferably phosphorus) or with a Group 13element (preferably boron). When n-channel TFTs are combined toconstitute an NMOS circuit, a combination of two enhancement type TFTsmakes an EEMOS circuit whereas a combination of an enhancement type TFTand a depression type TFT makes an EDMOS circuit.

An example of the EEMOS circuit is shown in FIG. 19A and an example ofthe EDMOS circuit is shown in FIG. 19B. In FIG. 19A, 31 and 32 bothdenote enhancement type n-channel TFTs (hereinafter referred to as ENTFT). In FIG. 19B, 33 denotes a E NTFT and 34 denotes a depression typen-channel TFT (hereinafter referred to as D NTFT). In FIGS. 19A and 19B,VDH represents a power supply line to which a positive voltage isapplied (positive power supply line) and VDL represents a power supplyline to which a negative voltage is applied (negative power supplyline). The negative power supply line may be a power supply line ofground electric potential (ground power supply line).

FIGS. 20A and 20B show an example shift register manufactured from theEEMOS circuit shown in FIG. 19A or the EDMOS circuit shown in FIG. 19B.In FIGS. 20A and 20B, 40 and 41 denote flip-flop circuits. 42 and 43denote E NTFTs. A gate of the E NTFT 42 receives a clock signal (CL)whereas a gate of the E NTFT 43 receives a clock signal with invertedpolarity (Cl ). Denoted by 44 is an inverter circuit and, as shown inFIG. 20B, uses the EEMOS circuit shown in FIG. 19A or the EDMOS circuitshown in FIG. 19B. Accordingly, it is possible to use an n-channel TFTfor every TFT in driving circuits of a liquid crystal display device.

Embodiment 11

This embodiment gives an example of the circuit structure for thedisplay device of the active matrix driving. Described in thisembodiment in particular is the case where the source side drivingcircuit and the gate side driving circuit are all composed of the E typeNTFTs of Embodiment 10. The description will be given with reference toFIGS. 21 to 23. This embodiment uses, instead of the shift register, adecoder that is comprised of only n-channel TFTs.

FIG. 24 shows an example of the gate side driving circuit. In FIG. 25,reference symbol 1000 denotes a decoder of the gate side driving circuitand 1001 denotes a buffer unit of the gate side driving circuit. Thebuffer unit refers to a part where a plurality of buffers (bufferamplifiers) are integrated. A buffer is a circuit that drives withouttransferring the influence of the downstream to the upstream.

First, the gate side decoder 1000 will be described. Denoted by 1002 areinput signal lines (hereinafter referred to as selection lines) of thedecoder 1000. Of the lines 1002, lines A1, A 1 (for a signal obtained byinverting the polarity of A1), A2, A 2 (for a signal obtained byinverting the polarity of A2), . . . , An, A n (for a signal obtained byinverting the polarity of An) are shown here. In short, 2n selectionlines are arranged. The number of selection lines is determined by thenumber of rows of gate wirings outputted from the gate side drivingcircuit. For instance, if the display device has a pixel portion capableof VGA level display, the number of gate wiring is 480 and henceselection lines corresponding to 9 bits (n=9), namely, 18 selectionlines in total are required. The selection lines 1002 send signals shownin a timing chart of FIG. 22. As shown in FIG. 22, when the frequency ofA1 is given as 1, the frequency of A2 is 2⁻¹ times thereof, thefrequency of A3 is 2⁻² times thereof, and the frequency of An is 2^(−(n−1)) times thereof.

Reference symbol 1003 a denotes a first stage NAND circuit (also calleda NAND cell), 1003 b denotes a second stage NAND circuit, and 1003 cdenotes an n-th stage NAND circuit. The number of required NAND circuitscorresponds to the number of gate wirings and n NAND circuits are neededhere. In short, the decoder 1000 of the present invention is comprisedof a plurality of NAND circuits.

Each of the NAND circuits 1003 a to 1003 c has a combination ofn-channel TFTs 1004 to 1009. Actually, 2n TFTs are used in each of theNAND circuits 1003. The n-channel TFTs 1004 to 1009 each have a gatethat is connected to one of the selection lines 1002 (A1, A 1, A2, A 2,. . . An, A n).

In the NAND circuit 1003 a, the n-channel TFTs 1004 to 1006 each havinga gate connected to one of the lines A1, A2, . . . An (these lines willbe referred to as positive selection lines) are connected to one anotherin parallel, and connected to a negative power supply line (V_(DL)) 1010as the common source and to an output line 1011 as the common drain. Then-channel TFTs 1007 to 1009 each having a gate connected to one of thelines A 1, A 2, . . . A n (these lines will be referred to as negativeselection lines) are connected to one another in series, and then-channel TFT 1009 positioned at an end of the circuit has its sourceconnected to a positive power supply line (V_(DH)) 1012 whereas then-channel TFT 1007 positioned at the other end of the circuit has itsdrain connected to the output line 1011.

As described above, each NAND circuit of the present invention includesn n-channel TFTs that are connected in series and n n-channel TFTs thatare connected in parallel. However, the combination of the n-channelTFTs and the selection lines is different from one circuit to the othercircuit out of the n NAND circuits 1003 a to 1003 c. In other words,only one output line 1011 is selected at a time and the selection lines1002 receive signals that select the output lines 1011 one by onestarting from an end.

The buffer unit 1001 is composed of a plurality of buffers 1013 a to1013 c in accordance with the NAND circuits 1003 a to 1003 c,respectively. The buffers 1013 a to 1013 c may all be structured in thesame way.

Each of the buffers 1013 a to 1013 c is composed of n-channel TFTs 1014to 1016. The output line 1011 from the decoder is inputted as a gate ofthe n-channel TFT 1014 (a first n-channel TFT). The n-channel TFT 1014uses a positive power supply line (V_(DH)) 1017 as its source and usesas its drain a gate wiring 1018 that leads to the pixel portion. Then-channel TFT 1015 (a second n-channel TFT) uses the positive powersupply line (V_(DH)) 1017 as its gate, a negative power supply line(V_(DL)) 1019 as its source, and the gate wiring 1018 kept always turnedON state as its drain.

In other words, each of the buffers 1013 a to 1013 c of the presentinvention has the first n-channel TFT (the n-channel TFT 1014) and thesecond n-channel TFT (the n-channel TFT 1015) that is connected inseries to the first n-channel TFT and uses as its gate the drain of thefirst n-channel TFT.

The n-channel TFT 1016 (a third n-channel TFT) uses a reset signal line(Reset) as its gate, the negative power supply line (V_(DL)) 1019 as itssource, and the gate wiring 1018 as its drain. The negative power line(V_(DL)) 1019 may be a ground power supply line (GND).

The channel width of the n-channel TFT 1015 (W1) and the channel widthof the n-channel TFT 1014 (W2) satisfy the relation W1<W2. The channelwidth refers to the length of a channel formation region in thedirection perpendicular to the channel length.

The buffer 1013 a operates as follows. First, during a negative voltageis applied to the output line 1011, the n-channel TFT 1014 is in an OFFstate (a state in which a channel is not established). On the otherhand, the n-channel TFT 1015 is always in an ON state (a state in whicha channel is established) and hence the voltage of the negative powersupply line 1019 is applied to the gate wiring 1018.

When a positive voltage is applied to the output line 1011, then-channel TFT 1014 is turned ON state. At this point, the electricpotential of the gate wiring 1018 is influenced by the output on then-channel TFT 1014 side because the channel width of the n-channel TFT1014 is greater than the channel width of the n-channel TFT 1015. As aresult, the voltage of the positive power supply line 1017 is applied tothe gate wiring 1018. The gate wiring 1018 thus outputs a positivevoltage (a voltage that turns the n-channel TFT used as a switchingelement of a pixel ON) when a positive voltage is applied to the outputline 1011. On the other hand, when a negative voltage is applied to theoutput line 1011, the gate wiring 1018 always outputs a negative voltage(a voltage that turns the n-channel TFT used as a switching element of apixel OFF).

The n-channel TFT 1016 is used as a reset switch for forcedly loweringthe positive voltage applied to the gate wiring 1018 to the negativevoltage. Specifically, the n-channel TFT 1016 inputs a reset signal whenthe selection period for the gate wiring 1018 is ended so that thenegative voltage is applied to the gate wiring 1018. However, then-channel TFT 1016 may be omitted.

The gate side driving circuit operating as above selects the gatewirings one by one. Next, the structure of the source side drivingcircuit is shown in FIG. 26. The source side driving circuit shown inFIG. 26 includes a decoder 1021, a latch 1022 and a buffer unit 1023.The structure of the decoder 1021 and the buffer unit 1023 are the sameas the decoder and the buffer unit of the gate side driving circuit, andexplanations thereof are omitted here.

In the case of the source side driving circuit of FIG. 23, the latch1022 is composed of a first stage latch 1024 and a second stage latch1025. The first stage latch 1024 and the second stage latch 1025 eachhave a plurality of basic units 1027 each of which is composed of mn-channel TFTs 1026 a to 1026 c. An output line 1028 from the decoder1021 is inputted to gates of the m n-channel TFTs 1026 a to 1026 c thatconstitute each of the basic units 1027. The symbol m represents anarbitrary integer.

If the display device is capable of VGA level display, for instance,there are 640 source wirings. When m=1, the number of required NANDcircuits is also 640 and 20 selection lines (corresponding to 10 bits)are needed. When m=8, required NAND circuits are 80 and 14 selectionlines (corresponding to 7 bits) are needed. In short, the number ofrequired NAND circuits is M/m given the number of source wirings is M.

Sources of the n-channel TFTs 1026 a to 1026 c are respectivelyconnected to video signal lines (V1, V2, . . . Vk) 1029. Therefore, whena positive voltage is applied to the output line 1028, the n-channelTFTs 1026 a to 1026 c are turned ON at once and video signals associatedwith the respective TFTs are inputted. The video signals thus inputtedare held in capacitors 1030 a to 1030 c that are connected to then-channel TFTs 1026 a to 1026 c, respectively.

The second stage latch 1025 has a plurality of basic units 1027 b. Eachof the basic units 1027 b is composed of m n-channel TFTs 1031 a to 1031c. Gates of the n-channel TFTs 1031 a to 1031 c are all connected to alatch signal line 1032, so that the n-channel TFTs 1031 a to 1031 c areturned ON at once when a negative voltage is applied to the latch signalline 1032.

As a result, signals that have been held in the capacitors 1030 a to1030 c are now held by capacitors 1033 a to 1033 c that are connected tothe n-channel TFTs 1031 a to 1031 c, respectively. At the same time, thesignals that have been held in the capacitors 1030 a to 1030 c areoutputted to the buffer unit 1023. Then the signals are outputtedthrough the buffers to a source wiring 1034 as illustrated in FIG. 21.The source side driving circuit operating as above selects the sourcewirings one by one.

As described above, a pixel portion and a driving circuit can all becomposed of n-channel TFTs by making a gate side driving circuit and asource side driving circuit solely from n-channel TFTs. The structure ofthis embodiment can be applied to the driving circuit of an activematrix substrate in Embodiments 1 or 2.

Embodiment 12

In this embodiment, the specific example of circuit structure of displaydevice of an active matrix driving. Especially this embodiment is such acase that p-channel TFT which is described in Embodiments 1 or 2 is usedin the source side driving circuit and the gate side driving circuit. Adecoder employing p-channel TFTs substituted for general shift register.FIG. 24 illustrates an example of a gate-side driving circuit.

In FIG. 24, reference numeral 1200 denotes a decoder in the gate sidedriving circuit, and 1201 denotes a buffer section of the gate sidedriving circuit. Here, the buffer section refers to a section in which aplurality of buffers (buffer amplifiers) are integrated. Furthermore,the buffer refers to a circuit capable of exhibiting the drivingcapability without providing any adverse effects of a subsequent stageon a previous stage.

The gate side decoder 1200 will be now described. Reference numeral 1202denotes input signal lines (hereinafter referred to as the selectionlines) of the decoder 1200, and more specifically indicates A1, A 1 (asignal having an inverted polarity with respect to A1), A2, A 2 (asignal having an inverted polarity with respect to A2), . . . , An, andA n (a signal having an inverted polarity with respect to An). In otherword, it can be considered that the 2n selection lines are arranged.

The number of the selection lines is determined based on the number ofgate wirings to be output from the gate side driving circuit. Forexample, in the case where a pixel section for VGA display is provided,480 gate wirings are required, which in turn requires a total of 18selection lines to be provided for 9 bits (corresponding to the casewhere n=9). The selection lines 1202 transmit signals shown in thetiming chart in FIG. 25. As shown in FIG. 25, assuming that a frequencyof A1 is normalized to be 1, a frequency of A2 can be expressed as 2⁻¹,a frequency of A3 can be expressed as 2⁻², and a frequency of An can beexpressed as 2^(−(n−1)).

Reference numeral 1203 a denotes a first stage NAND circuit (alsoreferred to as the NAND cell), while 1203 b and 1203 c denote a secondstage and an n-th stage NAND circuits, respectively. The required numberof the NAND circuits is equal to the number of the gate wirings, andspecifically, n NAND circuits are required here. In other word, thedecoder 1200 in accordance with the present invention is composed of aplurality of the NAND circuits.

In each of the NAND circuits 1203 a to 1203 c, p-channel TFTs 1204 to1209 are combined to form a NAND circuit. Actually, 2n TFTs are employedin each of the NAND circuits 1203. Furthermore, a gate of each of thep-channel TFTs 1204 to 1209 is connected to either one of the selectionlines 1202 (A1, A 1, A2, A 2, . . . , An, A n).

In this case, in the NAND circuit 1203 a; the p-channel TFTs 1204 to1206 that respectively have the gates connected to any of A1, A2, . . ., An (which are referred to as the positive selection lines) areconnected to each other in parallel, and further connected to a positivepower source wiring (V_(DH)) 1210 as a common source, as well as to anoutput line 1211 as a common drain. On the other hand, the remainingp-channel TFTs 1207 to 1209 that respectively have the gates connectedto any of A 1, A 2, . . . , A n (which are referred to as the negativeselection lines) are connected to each other in series, and a source ofthe p-channel TFT 1209 positioned at one end of the circuit is connectedto a negative power source wiring (V_(DL)) 1212 while a drain of thep-channel TFT 1207 positioned at the other end of the circuit isconnected to the output line 1211.

As described in the above, the NAND circuit in accordance with thepresent invention includes the n TFTs of one conductivity type (thep-channel TFTs in this case) connected in series and the other n TFTs ofthe one conductivity type (the p-channel TFTs in this case) connected inparallel. It should be noted that in the n NAND circuits 1203 a to 1203c, all of combinations among the p-channel TFTs and the selection linesare different from each other. In other word, the output lines 1211 areconfigured so that only one of them is selected, and signals are inputto the selection lines 1202 such that the output lines 1211 aresequentially selected from one side thereof.

Then, the buffer 1201 is composed of a plurality of buffers 1213 a to1213 c so as to respectively correspond to the NAND circuits 1203 a to1203 c. It should be noted that the buffers 1213 a to 1213 c may havethe same structure.

Furthermore, the buffers 1213 a to 1213 c are formed with p-channel TFTs1214 to 1216 as TFTs of one conductivity type. The output line 1211 fromthe decoder is input as a gate of the corresponding p-channel TFT 1214(a first TFT of the one conductivity type). The p-channel TFT 1214utilizes a ground power source wiring (GND) 1217 as its source, and agate wiring 1218 as its drain. Moreover, the p-channel TFT 1215 (asecond TFT of the one conductivity type) utilizes the ground powersource line 1217 as its gate, a positive power source line (V_(DH)) 1219as its source, and the gate wiring 1218 kept always ON state as itsdrain.

In other words, each of the buffers 1213 a to 1213 c in accordance withthe present invention includes the first TFT of the one conductivitytype (the p-channel TFT 1214), and further includes the second TFT ofthe one conductivity type (the p-channel TFT 1215) that is connected tothe first TFT of the one conductivity type in series and utilizes thegate of the first TFT of the one conductivity type as the drain.

Furthermore, the p-channel TFT 1216 (a third TFT of the one conductivitytype) employs a reset signal line (Reset) as its gate, the positivepower source line 1219 as its source, and the gate wiring 1218 as itsdrain. It should be noted that the ground power source line 1217 may bereplaced with a negative power source line (which is a power source linefor providing a voltage that causes a p-channel TFT, to be used as aswitching element of a pixel, to be in the ON state).

In this case, a channel width (indicated as W1) of the p-channel TFT1215 and a channel width (indicated as W2) of the p-channel TFT 1214satisfy the relationship of W1<W2. The channel width refers to a lengthof a channel formation region measured in the direction perpendicular toa channel length.

The buffer 1213 a operates as follows. During a time period in which apositive voltage is being applied to the output line 1211, the p-channelTFT 1214 is in the OFF state (i.e., its channel is not formed). On theother hand, since the p-channel TFT 1215 is always in the ON state(i.e., its channel is formed), a voltage of the positive power sourceline 1219 is applied to the gate wiring 1218.

On the other hand, in the case where a negative voltage is applied tothe output line 1211, the p-channel TFT 1214 comes into the ON state. Inthis case, since the channel width of the p-channel TFT 1214 is widerthan that of the p-channel TFT 1215, the electrical potential of thegate wiring 1218 is pulled by an output on the side of the p-channel TFT1214, thereby resulting in the electrical potential of the ground powersource line 1217 being applied to the gate wiring 1218.

Accordingly, the gate-wiring 1218 outputs a negative voltage (thatcauses the p-channel TFT, to be used as the switching element of thepixel, to be in the ON state) when a negative voltage is being appliedonto the output line 1211, while always outputting a positive voltage(that causes the p-channel TFT, to be used as the switching element ofthe pixel, to be in the OFF state) when a positive voltage is beingapplied onto the output line 1211.

The p-channel TFT 1216 is used as a reset switch for forcing the gatewiring 1218, to which the negative voltage is being applied, to bepulled up to a positive voltage. Namely, after a selection period of thegate wiring 1218 is completed, a reset signal is input so that apositive voltage is applied to the gate wiring 1218. It should be notedthat the p-channel TFT 1216 may be omitted.

With the gate side driving circuit that operates in the above-describedmanner, the gate wirings are sequentially selected. Then, the structureof a source side driving circuit is shown in FIG. 26. The source sidedriving circuit as shown in FIG. 26 includes a decoder 1301, a latch1302, and a buffer 1303. Since the decoder 1301 and the buffer 1303 havethe identical structures with those of the gate side driving circuit,respectively, descriptions therefore are omitted here.

In the case of the source-side driving circuit shown in FIG. 25, thelatch 1302 is composed of a first stage latch 1304 and a second stagelatch 1305. Each of the first stage latch 1304 and the second stagelatch 1305 includes a plurality of basic units 1307 each composed of mp-channel TFTs 1306 a to 1306 c. An output line 1308 from the decoder1301 is input to gates of the respective m p-channel TFTs 1306 a to 1306c that form the basic unit 1307. It should be noted that the number m isany integer.

For example, in the case of the VGA display, the number of the sourcewirings is 640. In the case where m=1, the number of the NAND circuitsrequired to be provided is also 640, while 20 selection lines(corresponding to 10 bits) are required to be provided. On the otherhand, however, when m=8, the number of the necessary NAND circuits is 80and the number of the necessary selection lines is 14 (corresponding to7 bits). Namely, assuming that the number of the source wirings is M,the number of necessary NAND circuits can be expressed as M/m.

Sources of the p-channel TFTs 1306 a to 1306 c are connected to videosignal lines (V1, V2, . . . , Vk) 1309, respectively. Namely, when anegative voltage is applied to an output line 1308, all of the p-channelTFTs 1306 a to 1306 c are simultaneously put into the ON state, so thatvideo signals are taken into the corresponding p-channel TFTs 1306 a to1306 c, respectively. The video signals thus taken in are retained incapacitors 1310 a to 1310 c, respectively, connected thereto.

Furthermore, the second stage latch 1305 also includes a plurality ofbasic units 1307 b each composed of m p-channel TFTs 1311 a to 1311 c.All of gates of the p-channel TFTs 1311 a to 1311 c are connected to alatch signal line 1312, so that when a negative voltage is applied tothe latch signal line 1312, all of the p-channel TFTs 1311 a to 1311 care simultaneously turned on.

As a result, the signals retained in the capacitors 1310 a to 1310 c arethen retained respectively in capacitors 1313 a to 1313 c connected tothe p-channel TFTs 1311 a to 1311 c, and simultaneously output to thebuffer 1303. Then, as described with reference to FIG. 24, those signalsare output to the source wirings 1314 via the buffer. With the sourceside driving circuit that operates in the above-described manner, thesource wirings are sequentially selected.

As described in the above, by composing the gate side driving circuitand the source side driving circuit only of the p-channel TFTs, all ofthe pixel sections and the driving circuits can be entirely formed ofthe p-channel TFTs. Accordingly, upon fabrication of an active matrixtype display device, a fabrication yield and a throughput of the TFTsteps can be significantly improved, thereby resulting in a reducedfabrication cost. The structure of this embodiment can be applied to thedriving circuit of an active matrix substrate in Embodiments 1 or 2.

Embodiment 13

Various semiconductor devices can be manufactured by using the presentinvention. The following can be given as examples of such electronicapparatuses: a video camera; a digital camera; a goggle type display(head mounted display); a car navigation system; an audio reproducingdevice (such as a car audio system, an audio compo system); a laptoppersonal computer, a game equipment; a portable information terminal(such as a mobile computer, a mobile telephone, a mobile game equipmentor an electronic book); and an image playback device provided with arecording medium. Examples of these semiconductor devices are shown inFIGS. 27 and 28.

FIG. 27A illustrates a monitor of a desktop personal computer and soforth, which includes a frame 3301, a support table 3302, a displayportion 3303, or the like. The display portion 3303 can be applied tothe liquid crystal display device of an active matrix driving shown inFIG. 8 or the light emitting device shown in FIG. 9. Another integratedcircuit can be formed by applying the TFT of the present invention. Themonitor of a desktop personal computer can be completed by using thepresent invention.

FIG. 27B illustrates a video camera which includes a main body 3311, adisplay portion 3312, an audio input portion 3313, operation switches3314, a battery 3315, an image receiving portion 3316, or the like. Thedisplay portion 3312 can be applied to the liquid crystal display deviceof an active matrix driving shown in FIG. 8 or the light emitting deviceshown in FIG. 9. Another integrated circuit can be formed by applyingthe TFT of the present invention. The video camera can be completed byusing the present invention.

FIG. 27C illustrates a portion (the right-half piece) of a head-mounteddisplay which includes a main body 3321, signal cables 3322, a headmount band 3323, a screen portion 3324, an optical system 3325, adisplay 3326, or the like. The display portion 3326 can be applied tothe liquid crystal display device of an active matrix driving shown inFIG. 8 or the light emitting device shown in FIG. 9. Another integratedcircuit can be formed by applying the TFT of the present invention. Thehead-mounted display can be completed by using the present invention.

FIG. 27D illustrates an image reproduction apparatus which includes arecording medium (more specifically, a DVD reproduction apparatus),which includes a main body 3331, a recording medium (a DVD or the like)3332, operation switches 3333, a display portion (a) 3334, anotherdisplay portion (b) 3335, or the like. The display portion (a) 3334 isused mainly for displaying image information, while the display portion(b) 3335 is used mainly for displaying character information. Thedisplay portions 3334 and 3335 can be applied to the liquid crystaldisplay device of an active matrix driving shown in FIG. 8 or the lightemitting device shown in FIG. 9. Another integrated circuit can beformed by applying the TFT of the present invention. The imagereproduction apparatus can be completed by using the present invention.

FIG. 27E illustrates a goggle type display (head-mounted display) whichincludes a main body 3341, a display portion 3342, an arm portion 3343.The display portion 3342 can be applied to the liquid crystal displaydevice of an active matrix driving shown in FIG. 8 or the light emittingdevice shown in FIG. 9. Another integrated circuit can be formed byapplying the TFT of the present invention. The goggle type display canbe completed by using the present invention.

FIG. 27F illustrates a laptop personal computer which includes a mainbody 3351, a frame 3352, a display portion 3353, a key board 3354, orthe like. The display portion 3353 can be applied to the liquid crystaldisplay device of an active matrix driving shown in FIG. 8 or the lightemitting device shown in FIG. 9. Another integrated circuit can beformed by applying the TFT of the present invention. The laptop personalcomputer can be completed by using the present invention.

FIG. 28A illustrates a portable telephone which includes a display panel2701, an operation panel 2702, a connecting portion 2703. The displaypanel 2701 is composed of a liquid crystal display device, a displaydevice 2704 typified by an EL display device, a sound output portion2705 and an antenna 2709. The operation panel 2702 is composed of anoperation key 2706, a power switch 2702 and a sound input portion 2708.The display portion 2704 can be applied to the liquid crystal displaydevice of an active matrix driving shown in FIG. 8 or the light emittingdevice shown in FIG. 9. Another integrated circuit can be formed byapplying the TFT of the present invention. The portable telephone can becompleted by using the present invention.

Further, FIG. 28B illustrates a sound reproduction device, specifically,a car audio equipment, which includes a main body 3411, a displayportion 3412, and operation switches 3413 and 3414. The display portion3412 can be applied to the liquid crystal display device of an activematrix driving shown in FIG. 8 or the light emitting device shown inFIG. 9. Another integrated circuit can be formed by applying the TFT ofthe present invention. The sound reproduction device can be completed byusing the present invention.

FIG. 28C illustrates a digital camera which includes a main body 3501, adisplay portion (A) 3502, a view finder portion 3503, operation switches3504, a display portion (B) 3505, and a battery 3506. The displayportions 3502 and 3505 can be applied to the liquid crystal displaydevice of an active matrix driving shown in FIG. 8 or the light emittingdevice shows in FIG. 9. Another integrated circuit can be formed byapplying the TFT of the present invention. The digital camera can becompleted by using the present invention.

As set forth above, the present invention can be applied variously to awide range of electronic apparatuses in all fields. The electronicapparatuses in this embodiment may use any one of configurations shownin Embodiments 1 to 12. As described above, the present invention iscapable of forming n-channel TFTs of different LDD structures and ap-channel TFT on the same substrate by the same process. The obtainedactive matrix substrate can be used to manufacture a liquid crystaldisplay device, or a display device having a light emitting layer on thesame substrate.

Reducing the number of photo masks leads to improved productivity. Inaddition, the present invention can simultaneously improve thereliability and performance characteristics of the active matrixsubstrate by optimizing LDD structures of n-channel TFTs as describedabove.

1. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising thesteps of: forming a semiconductor film over a substrate; forming a gateinsulating film over the semiconductor film; forming a first conductivefilm over the gate insulating film; forming a second conductive filmover the first conductive film; forming a first shape gate electrode byetching the first conductive film and the second conductive film;introducing a first impurity element into the semiconductor film byusing the first shape gate electrode as a mask; forming a second shapegate electrode by etching the first conductive film and the secondconductive film so that each edge of the first conductive film and thesecond conductive film has a tapered shape; and introducing a secondimpurity element into the semiconductor film by using the second shapegate electrode as a mask.